A Walk Among Giants, Chapter 21: Trinity.
Ok guys, gals and other worldly beings (we never know…) this is it now, the final part of the triathlon! You guys want to know a funny little piece of info? This idea actually came to me while I was playing Pokemon emerald. I used to emulate that game on an old smartphone I had back in the day, and this was before I ever uploaded for the first time ever. Originally I was intending for this to be a three-shot story, however like many of my idea's from back then. I decided it'd be better if I just incorporated it into my current story instead of starting multiple stories, and I (at least in my opinion) think this is for the best. I mean come on, you can't tell me some of these idea's weren't perfect for this story.
A sincere and extended thank you to the following reader:
UltimateCCC: Oh… OHHHHHHH…
Ok, ok I get you now. And well I mean that's a pretty shitty thing to do especially in a competition. Then again brutality drowning others isn't exactly civil either…
Also yeah put smashers into anything and it'll most likely turn into the most chaotic *insert example here* ever.
And I actually have a question for you, something that has been on my mind for a while. And well, sorry of this sounds stupid or anything but… do the 3 Cs in your name stand for anything? like "CrazyChickenClucker" for example?
The sound of rubber repeatedly rolling against the pavement was the only audible thing at the moment. Currently there was now a massive group of them pedaling like their life depended on it. This was the final activity before the whole ordeal was over. And of course the point system determined a smashers performance as well, so naturally coming in at first place could give anyone that boost in points they so desperately need. 28 teams with over 50 smashers all trying to score the top spot. This was of course because the smasher at the number one spot gains a whopping 100 extra points, with second pace getting 80 and third receiving 60, and so on and so forth. And also their battle points played a key role in how their performance in the end turns out as well.
"OUT OF THE WAY NOOBS!" Toon Link exclaimed as an engine sound began to rev up. He had attached a rocket engine to the back of his little bike. He boosts ahead of everyone while laughing like a maniac. Although he didn't take into account that the rocket would eventually make him shoot straight up into the sky instead of straight ahead. It didn't stop there though, he ended up exploding in a huge explosion that briefly illuminated the surrounding area. See at this point in time the sun had become a deep red as it prepared to dip its toes into the world. So naturally of course the availability of sunlight was starting to become scarce. Luckily the whole bike track was lit up by lights. Which is going to be helpful should the event drag on longer than intended.
Lucina however was trying her hardest to focus on steering her bike rather than what's going on around. Which is easier said than done when everyone around her is being attacked left and right. She sees Bowser up ahead in an overly thick bike that seemed to be made of stone trample over pikachu and his tiny yellow bike, (just picture the tiniest little adorable bike you could think of). The poor little mouse pokemon was crushed instantly and exploded in a flash of light. "You monster!" Peach exclaimed, having witnessed the whole ordeal. She then proceeds to throw turnips at the Koopa King, which she magically pulled out of her bike basket.
They all start coming up on a curve where and when they get to the other side they see some power ups. (Yes like in Mario kart) which raised a lot of eyebrows. Lucina smashes through a glowing orb which makes a little jingle before a little screen pops up showing what she received.
An Apple…
She just stared puzzled at the fruit that had materialized in her hand. That is until he sees Ike coming at her with a hammer laughing like a maniac. She did the only logical thing at his point and chucked it at his head. It splatters on his face making him fall off his bike and be trampled by the countless smashers that were behind them.
"Ha, nice!" Dark Pit calls out having witnessed that ordeal.
"Watch out!" She yells as a gooey bomb was lodged unto his bike.
"Holy shit!" He exclaimed as he leeps off his bike before it exploded. Lucina skids to a halt as her partner lands on the ground.
"What do we do now?" She says seeing the charred mess that was once his bike.
"Now you give me a ride" he says with a frustrating sigh.
"What, how?" She says as he quickly heads over to her.
"Didn't you wonder what these things on your back wheel are for?" He says as he places his feet on the little thingys. (I have no idea what those things are called, but you know they help you carry a second person on your bike…) "Go I'll cover you just focus on getting us to the finish!" He says as she shrugs and speeds off as he places his hands on her shoulders to support himself.
They start coming up to another set of power ups shortly after, which could work in their favor as they needed to catch up. She once again smashes through the glowing orb as the little jingle plays. This time she received a bunny hood while Dark Pit got a bomb-omb which he quickly tosses. He hears a girly scream as Pit happens to take it to the face. Lucina places the bunny hood on her head making them go twice as fast as usual.
"This brings me back some weird deja vu!" Link exclaimed as he dodged an incoming banana peel on the road.
They all then see a caution sign flash on a large overhead hologram shortly after. Just as the ground begins to shake as cracks begin to split the ground open. "You didn't think it'd be that easy did you?" Master Hand's voice booms overhead from out of nowhere. Well now that put a lot more stress on Lucina trying to steer normally. When it seemed it couldn't get any worse the ground started to spew out lava everywhere. "What the hell kind of race is this?!" Link protests as he is blasted skyhigh by a blast of lava shooting out of the ground. Luckily for Lucina however her bunny hood made her be able to move fast enough to avoid falling into any of the cracks.
That is until they disappeared, and now they were back at normal speed. "Power ups ahead!" Dark Pit called out pointing straight ahead. Of course they had to leap across a giant crater of lava first to get there. "Blue you're going to have to pick up speed if we're going to make that leap!" He says while she just shakes her head.
"There is no way we can make that!" She protests watching the crater in the middle of the path spew lava out.
"Yes we will, just trust me on this!" He assures her as she looks back and forth between the crater and her partner.
"You better be damn sure about this!" She exclaimed as she began to pedal faster. She makes it to the edge and the bike leaps off, and when it seemed they wouldn't make it Dark Pit tightly wraps his arms around her waist and begins to flap his wings. This gave them enough momentum to make it over the crater and to the other side safely. Lucina let out a huge breath of relief as she pedaled onwards. "Ok I'll never doubt you again!" She breathes out as they smash through the power up orbs.
"Sure, sure" he waves her off and shakes his head slowly. This time around she received a beam sword while Dark Pit got a cake. "The hell is this?!" He says tossing the thing aside. It splats onto the helmet of Olimar obstructing the astronauts view. Making him swerve out of control and go offroad.
"Here use this!" Lucina says tossing her partner the sword so she could focus on the road.
"Yeah this is more like it!" He says swinging it back and forth between his hands. It is then sadly shot out of his hands however making him growl in frustration. He turns and sees Fox coming at them with a raygun in his hands and a smirk on his face. "Swerve!" He says prompting the bluenette to do so as the anthropogenic fox blasted at them. Dark Pit however takes a hit to the back making him grunt in pain and having his bar drop significantly. They all turn to look behind them as a certain jingle is heard.
Heading towards them is a glowing and invincible Dr. Mario with the evilest grin plastered on his face. He rams into Fox making him fly off the road from the impact. Seeing this however prompted Lucina to pick up her pace as the Dr now began heading towards them. It was hopeless though as he quickly catched up and knocked them off the road. They crash a few feet away from the road as the jingle fades into the distance. "Come on Blue we need to get back out there!" He says getting to his feet while tugging on his partner who was on a daze.
They both quickly drag themselves out of the tall grass and back into the road. They both hear loud rumbling as they see a giant Charizard come charging towards them in an equally oversized bike. "Go!" Dark Pit shouts as Lucina begins to pedal away as fast as she could. The good news was however that they were past the whole lava and crater part of the track. But the bad news was they happened to have come across a Charizard hopped up on giant mushroom. They see Mega-Man sitting in the basket of the dragon Pokémon with a superscope. He takes aim and begins to charge the shot up. He glows yellow briefly before he shoots the large charged up shot. "Duck!" Dark Pit says as he and Lucina lower their heads and the large ball flies over their heads striking the ground ahead of them. "Where's the items when you need them!" Dark Pit exclaimed as Mega-Man prepared to fire off another shot.
"Up ahead!" She states seeing those familiar orbs a few yards away. Mega-Man fires off another charged shot which she promptly swerves out of the way of. She smashes through the orbs again as the little jingle plays. Dark Pit receives a franklin badge which he pins to himself with a massive grin. Lucina however gets an assist trophy which she places into the basket of the bike. Charizard gets another big mushroom which he quickly devours, while Mega-Man gets a donut.
"Is that your best shot?!" Dark Pit calls out in a taunt prompting Mega-Man to take aim again. "Don't move" he says to her as the charge shot comes straight at them. She nods her head and keeps her focus on the road ahead. The shot bounces off of Dark Pit and right back at its source. Mega-Man quickly leaps out of the basket as Charizard takes the shot to the face making him fall off his bike. "Ha!" Dark Pit says triumphantly as he raises a fist in the air.
They soon hear that oh so familiar beep of their watch as they pass the first checkpoint. "This is almost over!" Lucina sighs enthusiastically eager to finally be done with this whole thing. Just then a blue shell comes hurling past them and off into the distance.
"Yeah well then let's pick up the pace then," Dark Pit responds while keeping an eye behind them.
"Yeah about that…" She says while pointing straight ahead. They now catched up to the large group from before that seemed to be a little more clustered than before.
"Just focus on the road, let me worry about that!" He insisted as she nodded her head and pressed onwards. They then hear an alarm begin blaring as the holographic warning appears again.
"What now…" Lucina groans as she slumps her shoulders.
"We're about to find out" Dark Pit mumbles. But nothing happened and everyone just kind of worriedly and confusingly moved forward. "Or not…" Dark Pit said as he took a look behind them, and then above them to finally see it. "OH FU-"
BOOOOOOOOM!
A large meteor exploded just a few feet behind them shaking the ground. Everyone looks up to see large meteors come hurling towards them, making everyone go into a mass panic. "Remember meeeeeeee!" Ness cried out as he was promptly crushed by a meteor. Up above far off in the sky they see Crazy Hand, in his giant glove form, raining down the meteors on them. Lucina was now swerving left and right like crazy trying desperately not to get crushed. After a while Crazy cackles and he balls up into a fist before he disappears.
They both release the breath they were holding in that tense moment. It was now at the point where smashers had to focus on keeping each other safe rather than trying to kill each other. All a part of Master Hands plan to encourage cooperation no doubt.
They make it to another set of power ups and smash through the orbs as the jingle plays overhead. Lucina gets a smokeball which she tossed aside immediately, all the while her partner received a 1up, which restored his bike. "Well how about that!" He says rather thrilled as he hops on and prompts Lucina to follow.
It's not long before they hear loud maniacal cackling again. They feel the ground shake as they turn to see Crazy crawling at them in his disembodied form again. He begins trampling the smashers in his way who were trying to outrun him to no avail. "Swerve!" Dark Pit shouts as he rams into Lucina and makes them both go offroad effectively dodging the destructive deity. When they got back on the road again they discovered that Crazy paved the way ahead rather nicely for them. They hear a cackling shorty after and see Bowser jr coming at them with a homerun bat. That wasn't it either as it wouldn't have mattered much until he pulled out the ace in his sleeve. He pulls out a bunny hood that he plops on his head with a grin. He begins charging at them at a faster rate while cackling uncontrollably. Luckily for them however they smash through another set of power ups so they could have a chance.
And a chance they had indeed. As at that moment Lucina received a glowing bright yellow star. She absorbed it and started glowing as that oh so familiar jungle starts playing. Her bike seemed to have come to life and boosted ahead on its own. That wasn't it either as she also managed to rake in a nice amount of points as she knocked some unfortunate souls off the course. Dark Pit followed closely being her the whole time as she practically paved their way to the front of the crowd. "Alright blue, you finally did something useful!" Dark Pit pipes up rather excitedly making her growl under her breath. "Now to get rid of any potential nuisance we may have left!" He says with a grin as he pulls out a big red bomb with a large B plastered on it. He drops it on the floor but it didn't explode however as expected.
That is until they are a few yards away and the thing suddenly goes off, blowing everything off the road. Just then their watch peeps again signaling they have reached the next checkpoint. Meaning they only had 1 more to go. Well or so they thought until they saw a disembodied glove come slam into the ground sending dark particles spewing everywhere. It isn't long before Lucina and Dark Pit are swarmed by the substance, which made it seem as they were now in an empty void. "Dark Pit?" Lucina calls out looking in every direction and just seeing a void. "What's going on? What do we do?!" She calls out half panicked.
"Keep moving, we have to get out of this!" Came his reply that sounded near, but also far away weirdly enough.
"I feel as if something is wrong though…" She adds shortly afterwards but peddles forwards nevertheless. She then is overcome by a loud whoosh as a gust of air suddenly slams against her. She squinted her eyes as she kept her momentum as the air rushed past her heavily. She then begins to hear a voice traveling in the winds as it passes by. She looks around her but she couldn't make out much of her surroundings especially with the heavy winds limiting her eyesight. She looks behind her and sees a shadowy figure standing amidst the void, oddly enough resembling her own appearance. It begins to rush at her with its arms extended as Lucina panics and picks up speed. The shadow however kept trying to make grabs at her, most likely to try and drag her into the void. She hears a blaring alarm up ahead and sees light begin to peek through. The shadow lets out an eerie screech and retreats as Lucina breaks out of the void and back into the world. She immediately skids to a stop and looks behind her to see nothing there. No void, no particles, nothing…
She looks up and spots Master Hand in the air however shooting lasers at the ground from his fingertips a few yards behind. A hand suddenly clasps her shoulder making her jump a foot in the air. "Come on, now's not the time to stop!" Dark Pit states as he ushered her forward.
"Did something about that whole ordeal not feel right to you?" She asks him but he simply shrugs his shoulders.
"Dunno, however now is not the time to ponder about it either," he says as they resume their race to the finish. "You're probably overthinking things too much blue, keep your eyes on the prize though!" he assures her as she sighs and shakes her head.
"Perhaps you are right," she breathed out as she kept her gaze ahead at the setting sun. Indeed her focus should be to finish the race to finally be out of this whole charade. And at this point winning didn't seem to matter as much as just being done with it.
They then hear maniacal cackling as Crazy Hand comes rocketing down the path towards them at high speeds. They promptly and swiftly dodge the attack as he disappears behind the tree line again. They could however hear that he was rocketing uncontrollably all over the place behind them. They hear a brief short sudden scream as they see Zelda get hit by the rocket and disappear into the treeline with the gloved being.
"BLUE!" Dark Pit calls out as she turns to face him, she sees Master Hand hover above her in a balled up fist. She swerves out of the way as he slammed into the ground making a small crater.
"Thanks" She breathed out as he waved her off.
"Just- GAH!" He shouts as he is blasted off his bike by an explosion. Lucina skids to a stop to see Roy coming at them while wielding a cracker launcher. "Go get out of here, I'll-" he says before he is blasted into oblivion. Lucina turns around and begins to pedal away from the red head.
"Hey, look at me, no hands!" He states as he takes up the large cannon and takes aim at Lucina. He begins trying to blast her off the road like he did her partner but she was effectively swerving out of the way. She soon hears a loud click as he had run out of ammo, he tossed the thing aside and reached into his basket. He then pulls out his next contraption, a master ball. He grins evilly and tossed it ahead of her as it opens up to release its Pokémon.
"Mew!" The legendary type cries out as it just peacefully floats away off into the sky.
Lucina scoffs at him as he lowered his head in embarrassment. They smash through some power ups moments later and Lucina receives a maximum tomato, which she promptly ate to restore some of her stamina. She was going to continue as normal till a big hand swiftly smacked her off her bike. She rolls on the ground a bit from the momentum of her speed before coming to a halt. She slowly lifts her head as she sees a big Roy heading towards her.
"You didn't think I'd let you escape did you?" He states as he raised a giant boot in the air, she rolls away from him as he stomps down hard. She tries to go for her bike but he takes ahold of her in his big hands and tries to crush her. It didn't last long however and he shrunk down to normal size again. He just stood there awkwardly while she shoved him into the ground and made a dash to her bike. She gets on but goes nowhere as she is tackled off the bike by the red headed swordsman. Before he could stand however she threw his bike at him, he catched it but it made him fall off the road and into the foliage however.
"Stay down!" She breathes out and begins to head for her bike again. That is until she is rammed from behind by another person, dropping her to the floor with a short yelp.
"HaHAAAAAA!" Roy cheers as he climbs back into the road. "Great job little Marth!" He exclaims while pumping a fist into the air.
Lucina lifts her head and looks behind her to see a stoic faced Mii sitting on his bike. "Is that…" She says in her daze as Roy nods enthusiastically.
"Yup that's my partner, they come in all different kinds of forms. And ironically I found this one that kinda looks like Marth, I named him Little Marth!" Roy pipes up as he dances around his bike with a grin.
"Father?!" Lucina exclaimed looking at the stoic faced Mii in shock. "What did they do to you?!" She says somewhat horrified as the Mii that resembled her father blankly stared at her.
"That's your father?!" Roy exclaimed puzzled as he looked at the Mii while scratching his head. "Huh, I knew he looked a little funky?" He says to himself as he crosses his arms.
"What's wrong with him, why isn't he saying anything?!" She exclaimed while getting to her feet.
"These little guys don't talk or anything, they're just programmed to follow orders, they're basically machines. Although MH thought it'll be fun to have different looks between them." He states as he shrugs while she just looks back at him worried.
"You turned my father into a machine?" She says as he sighs while slumping his shoulders.
"No!" He states, "that's just a skin," he informs her while she looks at him worriedly. "No that doesn't mean I skinned your father either, your father is still your father wherever he may be." He says as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "Trust me it took awhile for me to wrap my head around it too." He sighs as she continued to stare at the Mii that just stoically stared ahead.
Before anyone could say anything more a dragoon swept by and blasted the mii into the air where he disappeared in a flash of multicolored light. "What now?" She says while looking up at the sky to where her 'father' exploded into light.
"You got little Marth taken out!" Roy freaked out as he placed his hands on his head. He was so young and innocent!" He adds as he gets on his knees.
"That's not Marth, and how?" She responds as he reaches behind his back.
"You had me distracted, which left the little guy wide open," he states pulling out a home run bat. "But no matter, I shall finish what I started and avenge his honor!" He says as he prepares to swing at her. Before he could however she noticed her assist trophy in her basket and reached for it. She takes it into her hands and lifts it above her head as it shattered and a figure stepped out.
"Prepare yourself!" A young female warrior declares as Roy dropped his bat making it clank on the floor.
"Mommy?" He says in a confused and innocent tone. The figure in general paid no attention to him however and crouched down to prepare an attack. While he stood there frozen in his confused state she suddenly appears in front of him and does a horizontal slash that sends him away into the distance before he explodes in a flash. The warrior sheathed her sword and promptly faded out of existence the next second.
"Well this day is just full of surprises isn't it…" Lucina whispered to herself looking at the spot where he disappeared. She shakes her head shortly after and gets back on her bike and takes off again. Surely that distraction set her back a bit and probably allowed the others she had left so far behind catch up.
She hears the beep of her watch go off as she makes it to the second to last checkpoint before this whole thing blows over. Her partner reappears shortly afterwards on his bike. "Seriously blue, you need to stop getting side tracked" he states as he shakes his head while mounting his bike.
"I-" she began but he instantly cut her off with a wave of his hand.
"Excuses blue!" he retorts and rides off not even waiting for her. She growls under her breath and follows after the dark angel. She could kind of understand why he was frustrated with her, it was the last checkpoint and the finish was straight ahead there was no time to lose. A large alarm blares overhead as a caution sign flashes briefly. She tightened her grip on the handles as she prepared for what was to come. "This is it blue, last challenge, time to go big or go home!" He called out.
Soon afterwards loud cackling could be heard echoing through the vicinity. Just then Master Hand appeared far above the sky as he clenched and unclenched his hand. Soon Crazy Hand joins him up above as he twitches and cackles maniacally. MH stretched out his fingers and began shooting down lazer at the smashers down below, that wasn't it either as Crazy did the same but he made meteors come raining down on them. It was a tense moment as every time Lucina dodged a meteor, a laser was right behind it waiting to strike her. They saw the finish line up ahead and everyone seemed to look at one another before everyone began to pedal with all their might.
Pit is disintegrated by a laser, just as Mr. Game and Watch is smashed into the ground on his 2D bike. Up ahead Raven and Shulk were in the lead, followed by Toon Link and Cpt Falcon. And just behind them was Lucina and Dark Pit themselves. She sees Little Mac trying to pass them before he is promptly crushed by a meteor. His partner, who happened to be Ike, skids to a stop before he is disintegrated by a laser. They start coming up on the other six and they are all soon side to side.
"Hey Lucy, no hard feelings about earlier right? You can understand why I had to use you can you?" Raven says as she turns to Lucina with an apologetic look.
"It's too soon to say," Lucina replied while keeping her gaze on the road.
"Well then it shouldn't matter if I use this then!" Raven states as she pulls an invincible star and observes it. Shulk takes out his own and they speed off ahead of the curve. Not only that but they became completely immune to the lasers and meteors.
"HACKS!" Toon Link calls out, "I call hacks!" He says watching the other duo speed off. "Falcon it's time to fly!" He says as the racer smirks and Toon hops into his basket. He hands him a bunny hood and they both speed off after the other duo, albeit still dodging the incoming projectiles. The projectiles are what was making everyone else lag behind while Raven and Shulk went freely towards freedom.
"Dammit!" Dark Pit exclaims with a frustrated sigh. Lucina kept her focus ahead of her though, should any other inconvenience happen she was sure he was going to chew her head off. Snow was coming up on their right with her partner Jigglypuff in her basket. They fall offroad when she swerves too hard trying to avoid a laser. The laser however struck Falco making him disintegrate, his partner DD Kong screeched before being squished by a meteor. Pit begins coming up on them next and he slams his bike into Dark Pit's.
"You little!" Dark Pit growls as Pit just huffs at him.
"This is payback for earlier!" He states as he rams his bike into his counterparts again.
"Pit I swear I will kick your ass so bad after this is over!" Dark Pit threatens him as Pit huffs again.
"Y-You don't scare me!" He states as Dark Pit turns to give him a fierce glare. "I've beat you before, I can do it again!" He proclaims as he whistles and waves his arm. Just then Dark Pit is struck in the head by an egg.
"Gah, what the?!" Dark Pit exclaims as he turns and sees Yoshi behind them with a basket full of eggs.
"Me and Yoshi go back, we worked together in the subspace, and now my partner will help me destroy you!" He says enthusiastically as Yoshi launches another egg at the dark angel. He moves to avoid it while slamming his bike into Pit's.
"You asked for it!" Dark Pit states as he slammed his bike into Pit's with more force. They both separated briefly as a laser came shooting in between them. Dark then slams into Pit as an egg strikes him again. He was going to turn and yell at Lucina for not helping but she was in a mess of her own. She was currently trying to get Link off her trail as he was wildly swinging a beam sword at her. Dark Pit growls in frustration as he turns to see Pit holding a ray gun aimed straight at his head. He fires but Dark Pit leans backwards and the shot misses, it heads towards the other side of the track where Lucina and Link were. He swings at her again but she ducks to avoid his hit and the incoming laser knocks the sword out of Link's hand in the process.
Pit tries to ram into Dark Pit again but he hits the brakes, skidding to a stop. Pit in turn nearly topples over from the force he put into trying to ram his counterpart. Dark Pit then lowers his bike towards the ground making Yoshi crash into it and go tumbling off road. He then gets up and pedals onwards as his light counterpart groans in frustration. "That's cheating!" He protests as Dark Pit just shrugged with a sly smirk. Just then they pass a pair of power ups, smashing through them as a jingle played. At this point both Hand's were letting up with their attack, but still continued to barrage them from above nevertheless. "This is the end for you!" Pit cries out as he swings around a ore club. Dark Pit however growls in frustration as he receives a banana peel. He chucks it at Pit who bats it away as he scoffs. He moves towards Dark Pit and swings downward at him nearly missing him by an inch. He steadied himself as he prepared for another swing at the dark angel who was trying to outrun him.
Lucina on the other hand, who was still struggling with a maniacal elf. Was at the moment trying to avoid a boomerang that he kept throwing at her repeatedly. She stared at the cucco in her hand trying to think of something. She breathes out and throws the cucco on Link that clunked on his head. He stares down at it as it calls out angrily and begins pecking him, and a flock of cucco appear and begin to assault him. He screams loudly as he flails around and goes off road, hitting a tree and causing an explosion of feathers. Lucina breaths out in relief and turns to see her partner in a power struggle with his light counterpart.
A loud horn soon blares as the finish line comes into view. Everything seemed to have stopped at that moment, as if time itself ceased to exist. This was it, the final moment that decides everyone's fate was upon them. The only audible thing for her at the moment was her exhausted breath as it escaped her lips. Her heart was pounding in her chest, rushing with an extra kick of adrenaline she got upon seeing the finish line.
In an instant the world returned to its normal pace and loud sounds from all over soon flooded her ears. She spots Luigi wielding a beam sword coming at her, and quickly thinking on her feet rams into him. He loses control and swerves hard right into Pit who was too busy trying to crush his counterpart. Luigi's beam sword cuts through Pit's bike completely severing the front half of it. The bike does a sudden dip sending the angel hurling forwards a short bit before being crushed into the ground by a meteor. Luigi tries to desperately regain control but is disintegrated by a laser before he could do so. "Not bad, let's finish it!" Dark Pit calls out through the loud commotion all around them. She nods her head as they speed off towards the end. Up ahead Raven and Shulk near the finish line and the Hands' appear before them trying to crush them in a clap. However due to their invincibility they go on through completely unharmed. They pass the finish line and skid to a stop, they then both begin to cheer and hop around in circles in pure excitement. Toon and Falcon were nearing the end as well, that is until the Hands' swat them aside.
They see Greninja and Sheik approaching the finish and Sheik's bike is pummeled to the ground by Crazy. The sheikah in question leaped into the air to try and get onto her partner's bike. Only to be grabbed by Master Hand and slammed to the floor and explode in light. They then both clap Greninja out of existence. "This is impossible!" Lucina cried out as now she and her partner were nearing the end. The hands both take defensive positions as the two smashers begin to rapidly approach.
"Focus blue, you better not mess this up!" Dark Pit says Crazy hand crawls towards him in an attempt to swat him away. Dark Pit lifts the front of the bike up and then pushes it into the air he rides up the Hand's middle finger and then safely lands behind him. Crazy Turns around surprised and extends his palm to slap the dark angel into the ground.
Master Hand extends his pinky and thumb outwards and rockets towards Lucina. Getting an idea from her partner she tightly grips the bike handles waiting for the hand to get closer. She lifts the front of the bike up and kicks the bike up into the air. However MH swerved upwards and took her along with him high above the ground. He then lunges at her to grab her and slam her into the floor like he had done to Sheik. Lucina however jumped off her bike and began to free fall to the ground below as MH crushed her bike.
Dark Pit however sees this and groans frustratingly, he skids his bike to a halt completely raising the back half up into the air. As Crazy slams into the ground a mere inch behind him he drops his bike back down on Crazy's pinkie. The hand begins to move upward and Dark Pit kicks off the giant finger towards his falling partner. He gets up, extending his wings and placing his feet under the handlebars to hold the bike. He then stretched his arms out catching the falling Lucina and using his wings to keep them from crashing down into the ground. The hands then prepare to clap them out of existence as they had done to countless others already.
Dark Pit however lowered his wings making them drop faster than anticipated. The Hands' slam into each other's palms completely missing the duo. Dark Pit re-extends his wings to make their landing smoother as they land and skid past the finish line. Lucina gets to her feet while holding a hand over her chest breathing heavily, she was so sure they were done for back there.
"Not bad blue, but next time give me a heads up when you want to pull stunts like that." He breathed out as he unmounted the bike and unclipped his helmet.
"Believe me, I would've liked a heads up as well." She says with a sigh as she unclipped her helmet and held it under her arm. She turns to look behind her as the rest of the cast start coming in.
"Well it seems you both made it to the end in one piece, congratulations!" Palutena says as she approaches the duo leaning on the bike.
"You say that like you were hoping for something else to happen..." Dark Pit states as he arched an eyebrow while the goddess just laughs and waved him off.
"Nonsense, I'm just proud of you is all!" She says in a baby talk tone as she pinched his cheek.
"GAME!" Master Hand Proclaims as the last of the smashers finished up. Everyone begins to cheer, glad to finally be done with the whole charade. They are then teleported to a field with 3 large pedestals in the middle. Raven and Shulk appear on the middle most tallest one. Lucina and Dark Pit on the right and second tallest, and lastly Samus and Zelda on the 3rd shortest one. "I would now like to present to you the winners of the competition, who's coordinated and precise teamwork carried to the end!" MH states as the rest of the cast clap and cheer for the winners. "Congratulations to the winners you will be rewarded handsomely for your efforts!"
"Oh one last thing, the hidden achievement goes to team 2!" MH adds shortly after as Lucina's and Dark Pit's pedestal is raised higher. "Despite all odds and obstacles against them, this team literally carried each other to the very end, this ladies and gentleman is what I hope you all to strive for. I hope now the rest of you would look up to these two as an inspiration as to what your partnership should strive to be!" He says as the rest of the cast look at one another in surprise. Well mainly cause word around the mansion is that these two can't stand each other. So to see them get an actual AWARD for being the best team raised many eyebrows.
*later that evening*
"Congratulations on first place, please accept these gifts as a token of accomplishment." Master Hand now in human form, says as he hands over a large gift wrapped box full of goodies to both Raven and Shulk before shaking their hands. They rush out of the room giggling like idiots to go and check out their winnings. Master Hand then steps out of his office motioning Lucina and Dark Pit to enter.
"And here they are one of my favorite pairs, you know I had my money on you two." He said with a short chuckle and shook his head as they stood before him. He turns around and takes two large gift baskets into his hands before turning around. He walks up to them looking back and forth between the two of them as he lets out an excited sigh. "I honestly don't know what else I could possibly do or say to express how proud I am of your fascinating teamwork out there!" He says handing a basket to Dark Pit and shaking his hand while the dark angel nodded. He hands the other to Lucina as he also shakes her hand rather enthusiastically. "I'm sure you'll also be very delighted to hear you received a large money bonus for your hidden accomplishment, it's already been transferred to both your accounts already. Although yours was put into a transfer account oddly enough rather than your own…" He says while he turns to face Lucina.
"Wha…?" She says as she turns to face Dark Pit who had a massive grin on his face. "Right, yeah that is where I intended for it to go" she sighs as she lowers her head, already half regretting her deal.
"Well you both should be off to your rooms now curfew is in a minute, however since this weekend is a short break you both could consider heading out into the town to spend some of your hard earned cash, on what you ask? Well that's simple you can buy yourselves new accessories for your rooms, also clothes that catch your fancy to wear when you go out into town. And should you wish so you can even get new furniture!" He explained as he clasped both hands together while the other two looked at each other and shrugged.
"Alright then dismissed, enjoy the rest of your evening." He says as they both head out of the office. As they leave they see Samus and Zelda by the door quietly conversing with each other.
"Ah my elites there you are" he says as he motions them in. "So what was it you both were talking about earlier?" he says as he goes and sits behind his desk.
"Well we have several reports and we even witnessed it ourselves, there was a point in during the last event where several smashers disappeared for several minutes" Samus spoke up as Master Hand leaned over with a hand on his chin/palm.
"I know you both say so but I have no recollection of there ever being a void out in the field." Master Hand shakes his head profusely.
"That's what makes this matter more puzzling, the fact that this 'swarm' of dark particles appeared right around the time you showed up." Zelda informs him as she waved her hand around.
"The thing that has Six concerned the most is the resemblance these particles and the void itself had to the subspace." Samus states as she hands a tablet of information over to MH who skims it over.
"And this is all the reports that the eyewitness states they saw correct?" He says as the bounty huntress nods her head. "What about this one in particular, where there was a claim of shadow figures among the void?" He says as he points towards the tablet as Samus leaned in to have a closer look.
"That one was reported by Lucina, I interviewed her myself. And the way she recalled it was that there was something following her in there and it even attempted to most likely drag her off somewhere..." Zelda spoke up as she crossed her hands and leaned to the side a bit.
"And what of her partner?" HM asks as Zelda sighs resting her chin on one of her hands.
"He just said he was in and out that's all, he didn't seem too keen on sharing" She informs them as he hums to himself skimming over the rest of the reports.
"I seriously have no recollection of that event, and I was keeping my eye on the whole thing all the time. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if some of my smashers went missing for even a minute." He says placing the tablet down and leaning back in his chair.
"Nevertheless, I'll make sure the Six and I are on top of everything. There won't be a step or even a breath anyone can take without us knowing about it. If something is happening we'll find it and put it down before we have any sort of mass incident that can happen again!" Samus states as she takes the tablet back and then smacks a hand into her open palm.
"I'm sure we can sort this out quietly, there is no need for this to get out and cause a panic amongst the roster." He says as the two women nod and turn to leave. "Oh don't forget your prizes ladies, you did after all performed exceptionally out there." He finished as he motioned towards the two gift baskets at the end of the table. The two look at one another and head back taking a basket each before finally heading out. Master Hand sighs as he stands up and heads to the back room before abruptly coughing up some dark particles. "What the!?" He exclaimed looking down at his hand before the particles vanished...
*In the hall*
"So where are the others?" Samus says as she and Zelda walk along the halls.
"Mario and Peach are sweeping the corridors, as Link and Marth are doing an extensive sweep around the mansion with R.O.B." The hylian informs her as she nods.
"Right now we need to go and look back at the recording for anything unusual" Samus informs her as she sighs slowly shaking her head.
"This whole thing just doesn't make any sense!" She states as she slumped her shoulders frustratingly.
*upstairs*
"Alright I have set a timer to 336 hours, so until then all of your money technically belongs to me!" Dark Pit states as he turned off the TV as he sat on his bed with a wide grin. Lucina groaned to herself internationally looking at the large sum she received but was unable to use. The large green number stared back at her as she closed her eyes slowly. She set her phone aside where she was checking her balance and dropped herself onto her bed. "Oooooo!" He says rummaging through his large gift basket. He takes out a card that had a voucher for an entire 3 course meal at a large restaurant in town. He throws his head back as he throws another chocolate into his mouth. "If this is the kind of shit they're going to be throwing at us for doing pointless boring mind numbing activities, then hey I won't argue with the results!" He says taking out a little trophy with a large 2 plastered on it and scoffing.
Lucina however was just staring at the ceiling remembering what Palutena had told her during the tournament. She sits up again seeing Dark Pit eyeing a small candle with the smash symbol engraved on it. He just shrugged and tossed it aside without a care. Lucina thought to herself about what the whole experience would have been like here had she not been roomed with him. Would it have turned out better or would events still have led her to the same fate as now. Although thinking back to it, it might have been cruel to have Rosalina put up with him, being her caring and kind nature compared to his selfish and carefree nature he seemed to be so proud of. She shook her head and went to her drawers taking out a pair of pajamas and heading to the washroom to prepare for bed.
*the next morning*
Lucina awoke rather early it was around 6am or so and the sun was slowly starting to peek over the horizon. She stayed in bed looking up at the ceiling lost in thought again. She turns to the side and sees Dark Pit asleep with his phone in his hands and a mess of wrappers around him. She sits up on her bed and heads to the washroom to freshen up and change. She opens her phone to see there was nothing scheduled for the next two days. She also sees a text from Marth that came sometime last night reading:
Prince of Althea: (Hey good job coming in second! You never fail to amaze me. ｡‿｡)
She pockets the device and heads out the room. Of course everything was dead quiet as everyone will most likely sleep in today. She was about to turn the corner until she heard a group talking in hushed voices ahead. She cautiously peeks around the corner to see the Elite Six standing around the front of the elevator. Samus and Zelda had their backs to her while Peach and Mario stood off to the side of them. Link was leaning against a statue facing the hylian princess and bounty hunter. Marth however had his back to the wall next to the elevator doors with his arms crossed.
"So nothing?" Zelda says with a deep sigh as she brushed a braid off her shoulder.
"Yeah Marth, R.O.B and myself took the falcon flyer and scouted all the old hideouts and lairs of the subspace army. There is no indication that anything or anyone has been there since we put down their leader." Link informs them as he runs a hand through his messy hair.
"The-a Princess and I didn't-a find anything unusual in-a the mansion either…" Mario adds as he scratched his head before placing his cap back on his head.
"Any more on Master Hand?" Zelda turns to Samus who in turn just shook her head.
"He is still 'meditating' and Crazy refuses to let us enter his chambers." Samus said as she took off her helmet and held it in her arm.
"What's going on?" Lucina thought to herself as he kept her back against the wall. She felt wrong for listening in, however she was more than curious to know what was happening that had them sounding so concerned.
"What about the recording, since we know MH likes to keep a record of big events like this for analysis?" Link asks as he looks between Zelda and Samus.
"Well right around the time where the supposed 'incident' a strange fade happens, however while we witnessed this phenomenon for a few minutes the strange fade in the recording lasts a mere second. It's a blink and you miss it kind of thing." Samus says as she hands a tablet to Link who looks it over. The others huddle around him to look as well.
"What the hell is that?!" Marth speaks up looking up at the bounty hunter who shrugs her shoulder.
"Your guess is as good as mine, it's nothing I've ever seen before." She informs them as Link hands the device back.
"Well, we-a better find out-a what hell that thing is before it's-a to late!" Mario says as he smacks his palm with his other hand.
"Assuming this is even a cause for alarm, what if this was a quote on quote glitch?" Link says as everyone looks at him with puzzled looks.
"What do you mean?" Peach asks as she straightens her dress.
"Well we all know Master Hand is a powerful over worldly being, so it's possible for our little event yesterday he sent us to a different plane of existence. One that he might have created on the spot for just such an occasion. The world or rather that plane of existence maybe glitched out causing some of us to rift through space and time until it corrected itself." Link says while everyone looked in though.
"Link no offense, but that sounds crazy even for you." Zelda says before Marth interjected.
"Not necessarily, see he may be right on the whole glitch thing. And the reason Master Hand didn't see or experience it was because he wasn't truly a part of the simulation we were partaking in." Marth says as everyone one looks deep in thought.
"That makes sense, however we're going to have to ask the big guy himself where exactly he sent us before we can confirm anything." Peach speaks up while they all kind of just sigh.
"Yeah whenever he decides to stop 'meditating' that is." Link says as he makes quotations with his fingers.
"Well until then I suggest we stay vigilant and keep a very close eye on the roster. None of what we know can leave this group capish!" Samus states while the others nod.
"Well, we should-a probably rest up-a while we can-a, it is the-a weekend after all." Mario states as he rubs his tired eyes.
"He's right I'm pooped!" Link says as he yawns. "We've been up all night scratching our heads, we should wait on MH so we know what our next move will be." He finishes as he stretches out and then slowly sighs.
"Yeah we could catch a few hours of sleep right now, it's the weekend and almost all smashers like to sleep in anyway." Peach says with a shrug as they all just nod.
"Right let's break, and we'll meet back up in the afternoon, goooooo team!" Link states while fist pumping and everyone just tiredly walks away. "Oh come on you guys have no team spirit!" Link whines as he follows suit.
They all disappear into another corridor as Lucina keeps her back to the wall trying to comprehend what she heard. Something was afoot with them and she was more than willing to find out what. She makes her way downstairs via the elevator, and she passes by the rec room. She sees Marth sitting there with a cup of coffee staring at his phone deep in thought. He sees her and sets his phone aside giving her a warm smile. "Hey you're up early?" He says while she simply shrugs.
"You look like you haven't gotten a wink of sleep" she said, seeing his eyes red with bags under them.
"Well I just have a lot on my mind is all, you know the usual." he says as he sighs while leaning forward and rubbing his eyes.
"What's wrong?" She asks the worried prince who just assuringly waves her off.
"It's nothing, I assure you," He says, taking a sip of his coffee.
"You should probably get some rest then to clear your mind a bit." She tells him but he sighs deeply and slumps his shoulders.
"Yeah I'll probably just head to bed, I'm going nowhere with this." He states as he buries his hands in his face with a groan. She sits on the table across from him doing research of her own, she was reading articles about the subspace she downloaded to her phone with help from Raven a while back. Maybe there might be something there that would help her understand what had Marth so tirelessly worried. It isn't long into her reading session that she noticed Marth had fallen asleep. His head was lowered and his phone was loosely in one of his hands. Curiosity got the better of her and she carefully took it out of his hand.
"Field Report"
Was sprawled across the screen in big red letters. She scrolls down to see a picture of the track from yesterday. Although there was something unusual and disturbing about it. In the spot above the sky where Master Hand is supposed to be was a black smudge of sorts, it looked like a faded stain. It looked eerie and out of place compared to the red contrast the rest of the world had due to the sunset. She thought back to yesterday and remembered the void she was sucked into, and how there was something in there with her. She recalled how Zelda came and questioned her about it, then informed Lucina to keep the information to herself. She scrolls back up and places his phone back into his hand, his rhythmic breathing could still be heard meaning he was still in deep sleep. She then spends her time going through the archives about the subspace war and its monsters, the ones that were available to the public that is. She figured what had the Six so worried was that the particles she encountered yesterday, and apparently a few others as well, had a striking resemblance to the shadow bugs that plagued the world during the subspace war.
The mansion started to become more lively as time passed on, but the prince stayed asleep nevertheless. Surely he must have been exhausted after yesterday, and then spending the night running around the land. Lucina however despite how much time passed kept on doing extensive research on the shadow bugs. Well within the late morning hours the place was lively, there were smashers in every room occupying themselves with various activities. That is until.. .
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" Shulk shouts panicked as he burst through large front doors.
Marth woke instantly and stood from his seat. He ran towards the entrance along with a crowd of others who wanted to know what all the commotion was about. He and Lucina arrive with Marth tightly gripping the hilt of his sword. They see Shulk leaning against one of the doors breathing heavily. He wheezes uncontrollably while pointing towards the front of the mansion. Marth and a few others make their way towards the front gates, weapons drawn and everything.
Lucina knelt down while helping Shulk to his feet as he tried to compose himself. "Shulk what happened?" She asks him as he continues to take deep breaths.
"Some guy with these huge mean-ass looking muscles shows up..." He quickly breathed out before taking more deep breaths.
"What, what happened, what's going on?" She says slightly shaking him from his shoulders.
"This dude proceeds to kick the crap out of everyone, we couldn't stop him, so, so I just ran, I ran and didn't look back..." He says as he begins to rock back and forth slightly.
BOOOM
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Ike shouts as he is hurled through the air and disappears out of sight.
BOOOM
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" Link exclaims as he quickly hurls through the air as well out of view.
BOOOM
"MOOOOOOOOOOOMMY!" Roy cried out as he too was knocked out of sight.
"Oh no, Marth!" Lucina exclaimed as she unsheathes her sword and ran towards the front gates where Marth disappeared to earlier.
"SHORYUKEN!" She hears someone shout as Marth is blasted into the wall next to her. She sees a large crater with smoke emitting from it oddly enough. And a figure standing amidst all the smoke who turns around and heavily stomps forward. Lucina raises her sword in front of her defensively and gets into a battle stance. The wind blows swiftly by as the figures bandana and belt could be seen swaying in the wind behind the curtain of smoke…
OKIE DOKIE ALLAPOKIEZ…
Idk, I really don't know. Anyway I want to apologize for the delay of this chapter, compared to how fast I posted the others from each other. Well I'll give you the rundown at what happened, and MMO is what, there was this awesome fun event a group I am with was doing and I got caught up in it, with the large majority of the population on lockdown there was more ppl online. And there was this huge monster war that happened and I was a part of! Where I had to kill loads of monsters for points to get awesome rewards. Anyway I wrote a little bit before bed whenever I could but I just got so caught up in it that I didn't get much done. The event ended already however and I got some cool armor upgrades, however I still get sucked into grinding out on the game now that there are so many old friends online now. Anywho I apologize in advance if I get sucked into another event or grind of sorts delaying the next chapter greatly.
That's it for now, review if you so wish it really helps with motivation. Also if you have any sort of suggestions you would like to see I'm all ears. Also if you've made suggestions in the past and haven't seen them yet, that doesn't mean I ignored it or anything, I'm just looking for the right place to put it so it feels right, if that makes any sense. So feel free to drop any more in the meantime. Also please don't be drastic and overdramatic with suggestions… K Toodles! （〜^∇^)〜
Next Chapter: Through The Eyes of The Other…